Try. Grow. Achieve.

Welcome to Temple Grove Academy

Welcome to Temple Grove Academy, the first primary school of Temple Grove Academy Trust in Tunbridge Wells. We hope that you will enjoy visiting our website and that it provides you with an insight into our vibrant and happy nursery and primary school. TGA staff are caring, experienced and committed to meeting the individual needs of every child through a happy, secure environment.

Admissions

Temple Grove Academy is a member of the Temple Grove Academy Trust. It is a co-educational academy that caters for primary aged pupils aged from 4 to 11 years.

The academy will accordingly provide for the admission of 60 pupils to its Reception class each year if sufficient applications for entry are received. Where fewer than the published admission number(s) for the relevant year groups are received, the academy trust will offer places at the academy to all those who have applied.

Oversubscription criteria

When the academy is oversubscribed, after the admission of pupils with Statements of Special Educational Needs where the academy is named in the Statement, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the criteria set out below, in priority order:

1. Looked After Children and Previously Looked After Children. A child under the age of 18 years for whom the local authority provides accommodation by agreement with their parents/carers or who ceased to be so because they were adopted or became subject to a residence order or special guardianship order [1]

2. Current Family Association. A brother or sister in the same school at the time of entry where the family continue to live within the academy’s catchment area as when the sibling [2] was admitted.

3. Temple Grove Academy Nursery. A child attending the Nursery.

4. Proximity of children’s homes to school. We use the distance between the child’s permanent home address and the school, measured in a straight line using the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) address point data. Distances are measured from a point defined as within the child’s home to a point defined as within the school as specified by NLPG. The same address point on the school site is used for everybody.

If a tie-break is necessary to determine which child is admitted in any category, the child living closest to the academy will be given priority for admission. Random allocation will be used as a tie-break in order to decide who has highest priority for admission if the distance between a child’s home and the academy is equidistant in any two or more cases and this process will be overseen by an Independent panel.

Waiting lists

The academy will operate a waiting list for each year group. Where in any year the academy receives more applications for places than there are places available, a waiting list will operate until the end of the autumn term after the beginning of the academic year. This will be maintained by the academy trust and it will be open to any parent to ask for his or her child’s name to be placed on the waiting list, following an unsuccessful application.

Children’s position on the waiting list will be determined solely in accordance with the oversubscription criteria. Where places become vacant they will be allocated to children on the waiting list in accordance with the oversubscription criteria.

Appeals

If it has not been possible to offer your child a place at the academy, you have the right to appeal against this decision to an Independent Appeal Panel. More information on the appeals process is available on the academy’s website www.templegroveacademy.co.uk.

[1]As defined in the sections 8, 14 and 22 of the Children’s Act 1989

[2] Siblings are defined as brothers, sisters, half-brothers, half-sisters, step-brothers, step-sisters and any other child that is the legal responsibility of one of the parents or carers of the student already on roll at the time of entry and is living in the same family unit at the same address as that sibling.